'The New Yorker' premieres excerpt from Lena Dunham's upcoming book

In the second season of HBO show Girls, Lena Dunham’s Hannah Horvath struggles with OCD. She counts everything, she forces herself to picture sexual images in a loop, she can only do certain things in sets of eight. And in a new excerpt from her coming book Not That Kind of Girl, Dunham reveals that her character’s struggles were very similar to her own.

In the excerpt, posted on The New Yorker’s website, Dunham describes her relationships with past therapists and what kinds of thoughts and habits got her into those therapists’ offices. It’s a serious piece tinged with humor, like when a young Dunham brings her therapist an article about OCD she immediately identified with. “Do I have to do everything myself?” Dunham comments.

Not That Kind of Girl, Dunham’s debut book, is about what she’s learned in life so far thanks to experiences ranging from being a woman in a male-dominated career field to dealing with hypochondria. “I’m already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you with this book,” Dunham writes on the book’s website, “but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse or having the kind of sexual encounter where you keep your sneakers on.”